Glad local writer 'calls them as he sees them'

Published 4:56 pm, Thursday, July 3, 2014

Daniel C. Hudson in his Where I Stand piece ("Falling victim to `longing for a gotcha moment'," The News-Times, June 27) offers a strong reminder about what constitutes history.

Every eyewitness account is the story strained through the perspective of the person telling it. To us looking back on an event, history is not merely what happened; it is what we write and choose to remember about the event.

Mr. Hudson rightly points out historic facts that have been obscured or pasted over, such as British naval power in the early 1800s and the multiple factors that brought the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Each of us can think of how perspective generates problems and even ill will: in family feuds (siblings in the car), national disagreements (who fired the canon first), and events in the deep past ( two Eden stories in the Book of Genesis).

Too often, reporters and officials intentionally manufacture misimpressions and stir sensational reactions only in order to promote themselves or to fuel prejudice.